MO Pharmacist November 2022

Storm on the Horizon: A Looming Lack of Access to Pharmacy Care Services

average of 13,600 job openings for pharmacists each year over the next decade, which makes the forecast even more dreary.⁷ Depending upon how current issues of stress and burnout in the profession are ad dressed, this problemcould become evenworse. Howmanymore pharmacists will leave the pro fession over the next few years due to scheduled retirements, early retirements, career changes, or the like? Howmany pharmacists will choose to move from community-based practice set tings to one of the many other pharmacy ca reer options? How many graduates over the next few years will choose a community-based practice setting? Currently, less than 50% of graduates nationwide choose community-based pharmacy careers, and that percentage could continue to shrink due to concerns related to the work environment. Clearly, all health care professionals on the frontlines have been in stressful positions over the past few years with high demand for services and fewer workers. So, a related question is, what will happen to the demand for pharmacy services if access to physicians, nurse practitioners and other pri mary care providers also worsens, which is the current trajectory?We are all excited about the opportunities exist for pharmacies to get paid for clinical services? Proactively thinking, we have to ask ourselves, what does the future look like in terms of meeting these demands? H ow can we convince policy makers and payers of the value of pharmacy services for increasing access, improving medication use and outcomes, reducing overall costs, and improving patient satisfaction? Will there be enough pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to meet current and future demands, especially as pharmacy practice continues to transform and more

growing transformation of pharmacy practice, but how can pharmacists fill gaps in care and implement change if there are insufficient num bers of pharmacists and technicians? No doubt, forecasting the future is difficult. We may very well see a more rapid rise in phar macy school enrollment than prognosticators would predict, or alternatively enrollment could further deteriorate. Threats of recessions and reports of high earning potential⁵ can drive education markets up, or potentially down⁶. If forced to make an educated guess, one would think our enrollment numbers will rise over the next couple of years. Again, difficult to predict what will happen, but the fact is our pharmacy camps for those considering pharmacy as a career were full and even had waiting lists this past summer. Will that translate into more ap plicants to our program? We do not yet know. Even if there are more applicants nationwide, there will still be a gap for four years or more until shortages can be addressed. If we believe a storm is on the horizon and access to care will worsen, holing up in a storm shelter will not suffice. Priority should be placed on improving the working conditions for phar macists and pharmacy technicians to decrease stress, reduce burnout, improve well-being, and increase career satisfaction—all of which will ultimately improve patient care. If hiring more pharmacists and pharmacy technicians can abate this problem, then employers should actively recruit and pay them more. As a pro fession, we should capitalize on the momen tumgained through the pandemic to accelerate practice transformation.Through this process, we should continue to work as a pharmacy team to manage the important dispensing function, but delegate even more tasks to free up phar macist time for direct patient care. We should develop practice settings and sites in which en hanced patient care services are integrated and performed during normal workflow. We should use technology to promote efficient patient care processes that optimize care and ensure patient safety. More than 30 years of well-designed and well-executed research exists to document the value pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and pharmacies bring in terms of access, outcomes, affordability and satisfaction. We need to con tinue to use this data to advocate and help policy makers understand the value pharmacy teams bring to health care.

One more important thing we can do as pharmacists is to be hopeful about the future and encourage young minds to consider our profession. As challenging as things might be now inmany of our practice sites, they will only get worse if we continue to discourage the next generation from joining our profession or if we give up fighting for making it right. More im portant, as one of the most trusted professions of all time, we owe it to our patients and to our communities to continue to provide access to pharmacy care services. References 1 https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/re tail-pharmacy-program/index.html 2 https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/ covid-vaccine-tracker-global-distribution/ 3 JS Guadamuz, GC Alexander, SN Zenk, GP Kanter, JR Wilder, DM Qato. Access to pharma cies and pharmacy services in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston, 2015-2020. J. Am. Pharm. Assn. 61(6): 32-41, 2021. 4 National Association of Boards of Pharmacy. Improving Pharmacy Access in Rural Commu nities. Innovations. 51(2): February 2022. 5 https://www.wsj.com/articles/walgreens-pays bonuses-up-to-75-000-to-recruit-pharma cists-11660227605 6 https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/20/busi ness/economy/pharmacists-job-inflation.html 7 https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/pharma cists.htm

Authors Russell B. Melchert, PhD Dean & Professor UMKC School of Pharmacy Steven C. Stoner, PharmD, BCPP Associate Dean, Student Affairs UMKC School of Pharmacy Maqual R. Graham, PharmD Associate Dean, Academic Affairs UMKC School of Pharmacy

24 Missouri PHARMACIST | Volume 96, Issue III | November 2022